USA National Debt Graph by President – Roosevelt to Obama

The green line shows what would have happened to the national debt if Reagan and the Bushes had balanced their budgets as Reagan claimed he would. For more information go to http://zfacts.com/p/318.html

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If the projected budget surpluses following the Clinton years had materialized, instead of being given away, then we could have used some of that money to fight the onset of the Great Recession. We could have been in a position to fight that fight sooner, as well as without using deficit spending so much. Which means that much, if not all, of the short term deficits from 2009 would not have occurred – short term as in cyclical (stimulus, both expenditures and tax cuts; extensions of unemployment benefits; and if we could have prevented the economy from falling as far as it did, then also revenue decreases and welfare increases). Deduct that amount from the upward turn at the beginning of the Obama administration, and what do you get?

Can you tell me to what extent the graph is due to political choices (war, taxcut, etc) and demographics – if you plotted (say) the earning power of the baby boomers, would you get a curve that looked the same from >1950 ?

To me, the most striking feature is the reagan/bush I uptick – is that really tax cuts ?

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